Happy Birthday Ava!

We celebrated Ava's third birthday this week! I'll probably say this every year, but time FLIES. I can't believe she is three! We had a very fun-filled birthday! Ava was so excited to have a friend party this year, and she wanted a Tinkerbell fairy party, so that's just what she got. It was so cute! Cody and I decorated for the party the night before after the kids went to bed, and the next morning when Ava came downstairs she said, "Ooooh! The fairies decorated our house!" It was cute that she thought fairies came to decorate. She got to invite her three best friends over for the fairy party. They all wore their fairy wings, we did fairy makeovers, made magic wands, had fairy lunch, played pin-the-star-on-tinkerbell's-wand, and of course had cake and presents.

Here are the girls are having their little "fairy lunch"

Meet Ava's fairy BFFs:

Maddie!

Avery!

Quincee!

The girls are holding their fairy wands they got to make...
The other side is decorated with glitter and sparkly things they glued on.
Opening presents...

That evening we had a family party for her at my parents house, which is always a highlight for Ava since they are some of her favorite people in the world. We had dinner, cake, and presents, and lots of fun.

Cohen joined in the present opening part :)

Grandpa Dale painted a picture just for Ava. She thought it was pretty cool! Going home after a long and fun day in her new Tinkerbell attire and rainboots! Besides the boots and clothes, she received basically all Tinkerbell and Barbie stuff, which she was completely thrilled about!

Happy Birthday Ava! You are my little sunshine and I love you more and more every day. We are best friends and I hope it always stays that way. I love seeing you grow, and I love the person that you are becoming. You are amazing, smart, beautiful, sweet, full of personality, and so much fun!

Hugs & Kisses

Mom.

A big day for Ava...

So guess what Ava and I did for Valentines Day???

We got her ears pierced!!!

Cody was out of town, so she and I were spending the day together. My friend came to visit who has a daughter Ava's age, and she had gotten her ears pierced the day before. I've been wanting to get earrings for Ava, but wasn't sure when a good time would be. Anyway, since Gracie did it I figured we could too! Ava was so excited when I told her - she has been wanting her ears pierced and is always digging through my earrings. I let her know that it feels like when she gets shots, but she was okay with it. Shots at the Dr. office don't bother her, so I figured it would be fine. The other fun part was that Cody had no clue, so it was a surprise for him too... Hehe! I think another reason I was so excited was because when I was little I couldn't get my ears pierced until I was 12, and I didn't like it. I was always envious of the other girls who got to wear earrings, and wished I could too. When I was 8 years old, my mom spontaneously took my sister and I to get our ears pierced. We were so thrilled and excited, but when we got home, my dad made us take them out and grow our ears back in because he thought we were "too young" and had to wait until we were 12. I was devastated, so like the second I turned 12 I had my mom take me back to get my ears done. So, I was excited that now I have my own daughter, and I was going to let her get her ears pierced if she wanted to! A sort of retribution I guess ;) j/k P.S. No hard feelings Dad, promise!!

Anyway, here she is getting ready to go!

She picked out some sparkly pink flowers for her first earrings... She was so excited!

Getting the purple dots...

Ready or not, here we go!

This was the look on her face after the first ear...

She looks a little unsure, but at least there were no tears.
Other Side... A little worried this time.

All done! I was way proud of her - she was so brave and didn't even cry!

She got a sucker afterwards, and that brought a bigger smile to her face!

Then she got to pick out anything in the store for her prize, and she picked a pack of 6 colorful eyeshadows, and a lip gloss. That's my girly-girl!

Despite the poking-holes-in-her-ears-part, Ava and I had a really fun time together having a girl outing. It was a fun and memorable Valentines day for us. The ear-piercing lady asked me to loosen up the back of her earrings right after she pierced them, and as I was doing it Ava said, "No, mommy! Don't take out my earrings! Leave them in!" I assured her I wasn't taking them out, but I was glad that she wanted them to stay :)

This morning when Ava woke up she climbed into our bed, and woke up Cody to show him her earrings first thing (he got home after she was in bed last night). She couldn't wait to show him! He was definitely surprised, but he was happy about it... and didn't make her take them out! ;)

And just for fun, here are the kids after church today...

Pretty in Pink

Daddy Daughter Dance

It was Daddy-Daughter Dance Week at Ava's dance studio, and she was SO excited for Cody to go to dance class with her! It was really cute.

Too bad Cody can't go to dance with her every week, because she paid attention so much better with him there! They started learning their recital dance too, and it is so cute. I can't wait to see her perform it :)

Again

I snuggled him up on my bed today while I was trying to fold some laundry, and there he goes falling asleep in some random place again.

I am wondering if he is going through a 6 month growth-spurt of some sort, because he has been more high-maintenance while awake, and is way sleepy and hungry... Hmmm. And he's getting two teeth on top. The lil' bugger is growing too fast!

Sleepy

I walked downstairs this afternoon to find this...

My sleepy, growing boy

Poodle-Mullet

I'm sick today...

And we are low on curlers...

But she really wanted curlers...

I did the best I could...

Really, I did...

There was no time to fix it...

I tried to brush it out...

I stuck a headband in her hair as she walked out the door with Daddy...

But it made no difference...

She went to church today with a Poodle-Mullet!

Sorry Aves.